[Mapbender-dev] Motion to change terminology: "Application" instead of "GUI"

[Arnulf Christl]

Hello,
as discussed earlier on IRC I propose to change the terminology use din
Mapbender WIki, documentation, presentations, etc. from "GUI" to
"Application".

Motion to change Mapbender terminology from "GUI" to "Application".

The rationale is that "GUI" is not a term well known to end users and it
does not reflect what a Mapbender applicaiton actually is - namely an
Application.

A "Graphic User Interface" by definition needs to have somethign visible
to the user. In many cases Mapbender "GUI" do not have an interface fo
rthe user but are just containers to structure permissions or to be used
as sources for catalogs. To call this a "GUI" is simply wrong (for example
wms_africa).

Mapbender is a framework to create, maintain and operate separate
applications that can use the same services. The idea is that the
application contains not only graphic user interfaces but also services
that can be configured individually and functionality that is designed for
a specific use case - and application.

An application is focused on a work flow or process whereas a GUI is just
the graphic user interface. Mapbender "GUI"s have links to services,
functionality and even users, groups and user rights. This is a lot more
than what the term GUI can convey.

What will this change break?
All existing users of Mapbender will have to learn that what was a "GUI"
is now an "Application". But we are well connected to all existing users,
so informing them is easy.

What good will this change do?
It will be much easier to explain what Mapbender is good for. Its good to
build applications. Sentences like "Please open your guigui" or "Please
open your guiguione" will not bother us anymore. So it will help to
attract people to look into Mapbender because they know that an
application is more than just yet another interface.

With Mapbender growing to be more of a management, security and brokering
system we should get rid of the confining term GUI.

Please take you time to discuss this in detail.

Regards,

-- 
Arnulf Christl
http://www.wheregroup.com